


The End of Memories

by FinalCross



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Egil (Xenoblade Chronicles) Lives, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27799957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinalCross/pseuds/FinalCross
Summary: Egil expected to either destroy the Bionis, or die trying. He never expected a second chance.
Relationships: Egil & Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 2





	The End of Memories

**Author's Note:**

> The last time I tried this AU, it didn't go so well. It was poorly written. I hope this time, it goes better.

“Hmph. And so, Zanza arrives, lapdogs in tow. Can you stop me, or will the Bionis fall to my blade?” Shulk stares at Egil, still reeling from the first time Egil called him Zanza, most likely. His six companions seem similarly perplexed, likely only having known Zanza as the giant in Prison Island.

“Egil, why do we need to fight? Can’t we live in peace? Stop the Mechonis and this madness!” He’s determined, but Egil won’t back down. He must prevent Zanza’s curse from destroying the lives of any more of his people.

“You fail to understand what I said in the capital, boy. There will never be peace until the Bionis is destroyed!” The power radiating off Shulk is new, but it was likely due to him becoming more powerful to fight the effect of the Apocrypha. When the generator was destroyed, all the power he had to use to fight its effects could be used offensively, rather than defensively.

Egil prepares to attack the sleeping Bionis again, the core’s walls switching to a panoramic view. He dimly recognizes two of Shulk’s companions being surprised by the transformation, but ignores them. “My revenge on Bionis commences!” Yaldabaoth’s sword glows gold, and he uses it to drive the Mechonis’ sword forward into the Bionis’ right shoulder, green ether exploding outwards.

“I wonder just how many people were killed then? A thousand? Maybe ten thousand? All of you will perish soon enough!” Maybe they’ll fight sloppier, he thinks. The red-haired oaf speaks up. “Egil! You’ll regret this!”

His traitorous sister finally makes herself known. “Stop this madness, Brother! Killing more people won’t bring back the lives we’ve lost, and neither will it stop the Bionis! We must live in peace, put an end to our torment!”

“It ends when I say it ends! When the Bionis falls before me, then our curse of twenty five hundred years will finally be over. No sooner!”

“Lady Meyneth did not wish for the Bionis’ destruction! Her legacy was that we could live in peace with the life of Bionis, not destroy it!”

“Meyneth? You dare mention that traitor? She will fall with the rest of you!”

“She is still our creator and god, Egil! That has to mean something to you!”

“Hmph. Pure nonsense. That thing lurking within the Homs girl is no longer our god. This world no longer has a need...for gods!”

Shulk steps forward, activating the Monado. “Egil, stop this!”

“Face me, Shulk, or should I say, Zanza! I will turn your precious Bionis and its Monado into dust. Then, this world will finally know true peace!”

He slams the sword on the platform where Shulk stands, and predictably, Shulk leaps away.

“Egil! Why go to this extent? Surely you realize that there must be another way!”

“There is no other way! I must destroy the Bionis to finally avenge my brethren. Their screams of terror and anguish haunt me, as Telethia rip them limb from limb, the winds in the wake of the Bionis’ Monado blow them off ledges, they are slain by ether blasts, or reduced to ash by the Monado itself! I cannot take another path.”

He swings at Shulk again, who jumps over it this time, like some perverse game of jump-rope played by Homs children. Shulk retaliates in the midst of his jump, cutting a gash in the armor of Yaldabaoth. He has to stop Shulk in his tracks.

“Continue to run like the pathetic creature you are, Zanza! I’ll just have to stop you right where you stand. CHASTISE!”

The wave of energy hits Shulk, ghostly ethereal black chains binding his feet to the floor. “What?”

“There’s nowhere for you to run now. Take this, you so-called god of Bionis! CONTINUAL MODEL!”

“Eat this electric round!”

The woman, Sharla, he thinks her name is, raises her ether rifle and shoots Yaldabaoth’s arm twice with an electric round, short-circuiting it and stopping it, just long enough for Shulk, straining against his bounds, to break free, the chains holding his feet dissolving into ether.

Taking this as their cue, the others rush into battle to aid Shulk and Sharla. The Nopon, who he gathers is named Riki, jumps onto Yaldabaoth’s arm and begins to breathe fire onto it while smacking it with his biter, made to look like some sort of mechanical monster with spikes on the top of its head.

He shakes Riki off, who scrambles back to join the rest of the group, while Egil takes a swing at Shulk again, who is still recovering from breaking free of the Bind.

The boy with red hair scrambles to get in front of him, shifting his gunlance into a shield and raising it to block the swing. He hears Shulk mumble, “Thanks, Reyn.” “Reyn” comes back with, “Don’t mention it, Shulk. Just keeping you safe, like I promised Fiora. Can you fight?”

“Yeah, I think I’m good now.” This time, Shulk manages to block one of Egil’s strikes with the Monado, which is apparently Reyn’s cue to use a nasty surprise of an Art. He aims his gunlance at Yaldabaoth’s arm.

“Let’s see you dodge this, Egil! SWORD DRIVE!”

The gunlance’s blade shoots forward with incredible speed and strength, making an extremely loud noise and crumpling the armor where it hits, leaving sparks and smoke emerging from the damaged site.

“You stubborn pest!” Putting all of his energy into the swing, he attempts to at least break Reyn’s shield stance, but he holds firm. Egil needs to distract them so they can’t exploit the ruined area to cause more damage to the Mechon.

Raising the Mechon’s arm, he summons Mechon parts, creating several Offensive and M90-series Mechon, while he turns on Yaldabaoth’s energy repair setting. The older Homs man notices.

“He’s trying to distract us so he can repair his Mechon’s arm!”

“Are you certain, Dunban?” the High Entia girl questions.

“Look there. It’s already starting to reform.”

She takes this as a cue to shoot a bolt directly into the damaged area, sending electricity surging throughout the arm, making it go limp.

“GAH! YOU SHALL PAY!” he cries, before a surge of red energy overwhelms him. The Homs girl, Fiora, has utilized Meyneth’s ultimate attack, Final Cross. Yaldabaoth is heavily damaged. He has no other option. It is time to prepare to use Bionis Slash X. Even if he can’t use it in this battle, he can still defeat them and then use it. It’s more so he can distract them long enough to repair the Mechon.

“You can keep up your clever tricks, but I know how to counter them!” He summons the energy devices. Shulk’s eyes immediately go to them. He knows something has happened. If he focuses, he can almost see them glow bright blue for a split second.

“The Bionis is in danger. I have to destroy the devices attached to Egil and change the future!” Egil’s suspicions that Shulk had a vision are confirmed when he says this. It doesn’t matter, though. It’s only a distraction to allow his Mechon to repair itself.

Egil is left alone with his thoughts. He sees one energy device blink out on the display, then two, then...

A jolt rocks through Yaldabaoth as the final energy device is destroyed, electricity racing through it as his controls stop responding. He can feel the damage they are inflicting on the Mechon, each slash sending a further jolt through it. It is at this point that he begins to doubt that he can even defeat them. They are rapidly returning the damage that he repaired.

He finally regains control of the golden Mechon, trying to fix where this battle went wrong, and swings his sword in a wide arc across the field.

“No time to lose! WEAKNESS MODEL!”

Fiora, the High Entia girl (who he believes is named Melia), and Dunban are all knocked down by the swing’s sheer power. As usual, Shulk intervenes, helping them to their feet. He takes another slash at the Mechon’s arm to allow them time to get out of range.

This is becoming irritatingly repetitive. They both need to end this now, or else it will go on until one of them grows tired and makes a mistake. Egil begins to shoot balls of ether at Shulk, who sidesteps and dodges with a practiced ease, grunting from the effort. He’s beginning to tire, Egil thinks.

He is shocked when Shulk begins to tap into the Monado’s, no, Zanza’s true power. He didn’t think the boy had it in him.

He cannot hope to match the power of a Monado. Panicked, he swings the sword at Shulk again. Egil has only seen this power used once before, and he was not thinking straight at that point.

With a disturbing ease and apathetic demeanor, Shulk blocks the sword, and, only straining a small amount, sends it back in the direction it came from. Dunban seems to echo Egil’s thoughts, marveling, “Incredible...”

Egil makes one more desperate swing, but before the sword even halfway reaches him, Shulk leaps twenty feet in the air and strikes at Yaldabaoth as soon as he lands on it, slicing its head off and revealing Egil, Fiora screaming for him to stop.

“The true power of the Monado...it is awe-inspiring, I must admit.”

Shulk seems to not hear him. He stands there for what feels like hours, holding the Monado above his head, ready to strike like a coiled snake. And that was exactly what Zanza was. A snake. He wasn’t surprised that Shulk’s posture reminded him of one.

Egil is about to speak up, when Shulk declares, “Yes, I will. I’ll kill him. A thousand times.” As he suspected, Zanza is influencing him in some capacity.

“Yes, I want to. I’ll kill him. For Fiora, for the Emperor, for my home!”

Another seemingly endless expanse of time passes before Shulk prepares to strike, but as he swings the blade down, he cries out, “No! This isn’t what I want!” Fiora clearly seems to agree with him, as she calls to him, “Shulk! Don’t do it!” Vanea chimes in, adding, “Brother! NO!”

Egil opens his eyes, not seeing whatever afterlife awaits him, but instead sees a relieved Shulk watching him, still not trusting him.

“Why? If you had killed me, the threat from the Mechon would be over. There would be no more attacks on your colonies, and the life of Bionis would be safe, at least for the time being.”

“I couldn’t do it, Egil. You’ve obviously suffered much, just as I have. I didn’t want to kill someone that could so easily have been me, if not for all my friends. And so, I forgot all the atrocities you committed, and saw the broken, suffering man beneath them. There is no reason for me to kill you, Egil.”

“But I still have plenty of reasons to kill you, Shulk.”

“Maybe you do. But still, I cannot bring myself to kill you, especially now, in cold blood.”

“If you do not kill me now, my blade will annihilate every last one of your people. Even then?”

“No, it won’t. If you swing your blade at Bionis, then I will stop it, as many times as it takes for us to understand each other. Okay?”

“Perhaps...perhaps he is right,” Egil thought. “I will not belong in the world he seeks to create. My hands are stained red with the blood of the fallen Homs slain by Mechon. I must sacrifice myself against Zanza. Perhaps then I can redeem myself. If anyone has a chance of defeating that abomination, then Shulk does.”

He needs to tell Shulk about Zanza if they have any chance of creating a truly free world. He cannot let their tragedy continue.

He finally vocalizes his thoughts.

“You may be the first one who wields the Monado who actually had his own will, Shulk. However, you are not its master. I’m certain you are already aware, but its true master is Zanza, the soul of the Bionis.”

Shulk’s eyes seem to flash with surprise and shock at this description. “So, he’s like Meyneth is to the Mechonis?”

“Correct. Mechonis and Bionis used to exist like in the world you wish to create. There was no war, no hardship. Everyone believed that if we coexisted, we could create a brighter future for everyone. The High Entia, Giants, Nopon, and Machina worked together to create a society of learning and knowledge spanning across both titans.”

“I once had a friend amongst the Giants. His name was Arglas.”

At mentioning his name, Egil’s bittersweet memories of the time he spent on Bionis return, threatening to overwhelm him. He particularly remembers a time spent looking out at the Bionis’ head from its right shoulder.

“Egil, why do you think we were born?”

“Ah, philosophy. Alas, I am not very good at answering such questions.” He still hadn’t improved much in that regard, likely due to having shut his memories of that time out of his mind due to the trauma.

“Have you never thought about it? Never contemplated what lies beyond this world?”

“Beyond this world? Lady Meyneth said that aside from the Bionis and the Mechonis, this world is filled with nothing but boundless ocean.”

At once irritatingly predictable and unpredictable, Arglas had asked him what was simply the next logical question for a philosopher. “But what lies beyond that?” Egil hadn’t thought about that possibility, and so he did contemplate it. What if there truly was land besides the titans?

It seemed impossible, especially because the Machina scientists had determined that there was no land for a hundred light-years in all directions. But what if there was? It would take over a hundred Machina lifetimes to reach it, and would, for all intents and purposes, not exist, but it would be the most incredible discovery in all of recorded history.

“We are still young, and unable to leave the Bionis or Mechonis. Say goodbye to our creators, our world. But, one day our descendants will. They will leave this place and depart for new worlds, worlds we have never imagined, by strength of their will alone.”

“Leave this place? That is something I have never considered. However, it would be a truly amazing sight.”

“Egil, I wish to see that the people of Bionis and and the people of Mechonis live in peace and harmony and take care of one another. I wish this for the future of our descendants.”

That had been the last time Egil had ever seen Arglas. They had returned to his dwelling, spent the night there, and then Egil had departed to return to Alcamoth. By the time he returned, Arglas was no longer Arglas.

“We all thought our worlds would never see hardship again. We thought that the Bionis simply lacked a soul, or that its soul simply wished to observe the life he had created from afar. The monster. I can never forgive Zanza for what he did.”

“What did he do, Egil? You must tell me!” Shulk seemed to wish to know more, and that was a good sign. Zanza hadn’t overtaken his mind completely.

“It was all to do with the Monado. Zanza refused to permit the existence of Mechonis, or rather, the existence of anything but himself. Arglas stumbled upon the Monado one day, and when he touched it, Zanza took control of his body. It was Arglas, possessed by Zanza, who devastated Mechonis.”

The shock seems to pass across his face, obviously questioning all of his beliefs about the Bionis. However, a second later, he hides it again, and asks Egil, “I’m confused, Egil. What relation does the Monado have to Zanza? You spoke about them as if they were the same!”

“That, they are. Zanza and the Monado are, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same. When he requires, or simply desires a vessel, Zanza lures someone from Bionis into touching the Monado, where he takes their body for his own.”

“But, I’m not Zanza. I don’t understand why he hasn’t possessed me, if I continue to wield the Monado. Or, really, why he never possessed Dunban.”

“The logical answer for why he never possessed Dunban is because he was still possessing Arglas at the moment, and did not desire a new vessel. Rather, he simply wanted Dunban to cease using it. I believe he already possessed you, and simply wanted you to grow up yourself.”

The fear in his eyes grows at this. “Grow up myself? Do you mean he will take over my body soon?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“What can I do, then?”

Everybody is so transfixed by their discussion, that nobody hears the transporter’s noise.

“There is one more thing. Do you know anyone named Dickson?”

“There’s a man called that in Colony 9. He saved me from dying on Valak Mountain when I was only five years old. He’s actually right outside of here.”

“You must kill him. He is undyingly loyal to Zan-”

**BANG**

“WHAT?!” Egil is the first to react to the gunshot.

“Shuuuuuulk!” Fiora cries out in anguish.

“NO! This cannot be!” Dunban, normally so unflappable, sounds genuinely sad and disbelieving at this turn of events.

Shulk cries out in pain, turning around to look at the source.

“Talking about me without my knowledge, eh? Knew it was a mistake to not come in sooner. Kid’s gone soft.” It was a different form than his Giant form, but his voice and weapon were unmistakable. Dickson stands before them.

Shulk stands there in disbelief for about three seconds more, before swaying, muttering, “I’m...all...right...” and falling off of Yaldabaoth, Egil catching him in its arm and gently setting him down on the platform.

“Dickson. You’re a traitor, too?” Dunban’s words carry an icy calm, but threaten a storm.

“Heh, it’s you who’s the traitor, Dunban. Trying to go against the will of Bionis was a mistake.”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE WILL OF THE BIONIS, YOU DAMNED FOOL! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN SON!”

He charges Dickson, murderous intent in his eyes. The same intent he displayed only once before, when Mumkhar revealed himself as Metal Face.

Dunban raises his sword to strike him down, but Dickson blocks, using the opening to shoot Dunban in the leg, who collapses to the ground with a cry of pain.

“Anyone else want to try? Maybe I won’t kill him if you do.”

“You scumbag! I’ll kill you right here!” Reyn tries, and when Dickson shoots at him, he blocks it with his shield. “Not so tough when you can’t cheat!”

“Enough of this! Why not pay attention to Shulk instead?”

“Like we’d listen to a word you say, you smarmy bastard!” Melia quickly sends a Healing Gift to Dunban, whose leg wound closes.

Sharla runs to Shulk, who by now, is having a seizure, and is dangerously close to falling off the platform. Before she can try to administer any aid, his body flies into the air and begins emitting pulses of pure white ether.

“Witness it with your own eyes! Lord Zanza returns to us, here and now!”

“Zanza! I must protect the Mechonis from you!” Egil throws a ball of energy directly at Shulk’s body, intending for it to be annihilated from existence along with Zanza, still trapped in it. Instead, Zanza, exhibiting control over it like a puppet, lifts Shulk’s arm like a puppet, harmlessly absorbing the ether.

A red spark appears in the center of Egil’s vision, and explodes into a red-tinted scene. Zanza sends the ether back from whence it came, and it hits Yaldabaoth, knocking it against the wall of the core, and mortally wounding Egil, Vanea crying out to him in terror. The scene fades, and Zanza shoots the ether back again.

Egil just remembers to hit the shield button in time, and although it almost breaks, it holds fast, and Yaldabaoth is protected from damage. Zanza finally frees himself from Shulk, taking the Monado. Shulk collapses to the ground, unconscious or dead.

“What? The passage of fate...HOW DID YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN?” The normally serenely malicious Zanza seems genuinely shocked by this.

“I am responsible. I granted him a vision.” Meyneth, speaking up from within Fiora’s body, explains. “So, that is what Shulk’s visions are like,” Egil thinks.

“You pest. You are a thorn in my side, time and time again, Meyneth.” He quickly regains his composure, and continues with his obviously practiced speech.

“Do not be surprised. Everything in this world is dictated by the passage of fate. As all that exists is interconnected, time can flow only towards the inevitable. That is the vision of which I, the Monado, am the origin.”

Halos and wings of light begin to appear behind his arms and above his head. “That which will be, will be. This was all predestined. Ever since I came to reside within Shulk.”  
“What do you mean?”

Meyneth answers for him. “Zanza grew tired from our battle, and then the High Entia ancestors trapped him. His flesh was sealed away on Prison Island. His soul, and hence the Monado, was confined to Ose Tower.”

“Dickson...you didn’t bring Shulk back out of the kindness of your heart, did you?” Dunban sounds completely despondent.

“JACKPOT!” Dickson gloats. “I brought him back because of Lord Zanza’s will. Everything I did was in preparation for this day. In fact, there was never anyone called Shulk to begin with!”

Dunban, still in disbelief, asks him, “What?"

“My soul existed inside the Monado. It was fated that I be released. It was shown to me in a vision. At last the time finally came, and then...”

“The people who found the Monado, and freed it, awoke Zanza. He sucked the lives from them so he could live. Shulk was among them.”

“Shulk was already dead? I don’t believe that! We grew up together!”

“You grew up with an empty shell. He appeared to live because I became his life force. That is until he had matured as my new vessel, and became worthy of wielding the Monado, allowing me to truly awaken and finally return."

“Lord Zanza needs a living, breathing body to carry out his will. Just like Meyneth over there. Call that corpse a friend? Don’t make me laugh.”

Melia asks, “Why did you select Shulk as your vessel? There must have been a reason!”

“There was no particular reason. He merely happened to be there at the time.”

“There you have it. It didn’t have to be Shulk. It was all a coincidence. Bad luck. All Lord Zanza needed was someone who could swing a sword.”

“So then, the reason he could use the Monado and I could not...” “and why he received visions of the future...”

“Yeah, that was because of Lord Zanza. He can see fate itself, and he just used the visions to manipulate you to do his bidding. The destruction of Colony 9. The death of that pompous old High Entia fool. And that grunt Gadolt’s miserable demise. All of it!”

Melia silently charges at Dickson, raises her staff, and brings it down on his head, which makes him cry out in pain and surprise. He whirls around, knocking her down with his Sabre, before pressing it to her head, threatening to shoot.

With blood beginning to leak down his head from the wound, Dickson smugly adds, “There’s more. We haven’t even got to the best part.”

“What’re you gonna do, Dickson?”

“Me? I ain’t gonna do anything. It’s all gonna be Lord Zanza. The lot of you are in his way. Lord Zanza is responsible for creating you, the entire world. You things think you can defy him?”

“All life that is born from me must be returned to me to complete the cycle. For me to continue my existence as before, then all must be restored to its former order.”  
“He wants to start the destruction and recreation of the world. Nothing more to it.”

“First, we must eliminate my greatest obstacle. You, Meyneth. The Mechonis!”

He raises the Monado into the air, and it glows blue, before unleashing a blinding flash of white.

Sure enough, just as the Mechonis had awakened mere hours before, the Bionis springs to life as well, red eyes beginning to glow and chunks of rock falling into the sea. His mission done, Dickson departs.

“B-Bionis moves!” Riki seems terrified, but still ready to fight.

“The Bionis has awakened? Just what I was hoping for! A true battle for this world’s future! ZANZAAAAAA!”

Egil brings the sword down upon the Bionis’ head in a buster strike, and Zanza raises the Bionis’ arm to block it. Somehow, its awakening has strengthened its body, preventing the Mechonis’ sword from so easily damaging it. He continues to swing at its arm, hoping to cut it off.  
“Egil, stop this! You’re too weak!”

“Like there is any alternative! As long as Zanza continues to live, then all our efforts will be in vain. He will kill every last one of us!”

Zanza laughs at their exchange like a madman. “Your efforts have been in vain since the day you began. Now, you shall cease to exist. By the wrath of my blade!” He holds up the Monado, given a new form glowing with blue energy, and the Bionis mirrors him, holding up the sword of light described in legends.

“I’ll show you the meaning of wrath!” Egil locks blades with the Bionis, each exerting unstoppable force on the other, until bright blue cracks begin to appear on the Mechonis’ sword.

“What?” is all Egil can stammer out as Zanza proclaims, “It’s finished!” and slices through the sword.

The sword of light cuts through the Mechonis’ head, bisecting the core and passing directly over Egil’s head. “But it was supposed to...never mind. I presume this is your meddling, Meyneth.”

“I had nothing to do with the sword missing its mark, Zanza.”

“Well, whatever.” Zanza raises the Monado into the air, creating a mass of energy to trap everyone in place.

The Bionis raises its sword. “It is from me that all life is born. It exists only for me. And it shall be returned!” The Bionis brings it closer, threatening to destroy the Core.

Before it can destroy the Mechonis, Fiora’s chestplate glows, and twin swords in green and pink hues emerge. She flies at Zanza, forcing him to stop and bring his sword up to block the attack.

“So, you have finally unleashed your Monado.” Zanza laughs. “And there was me thinking you would die with dignity!”

Ignoring his jab, Meyneth explains, “I finally understand. The futures of our children belong to them alone. Though we are their creators, their lives are theirs to control! Even if the passage of fate is as you have decided, I will teach you the strength of their will to resist.”

He pushes back against her assault, sending her floating back to the platform.

“Zanza. If you choose to deny the existence of every living being but yourself, then I choose to fight. To fight for them!”

Fiora chimes in, “That’s right! We won’t let you erase everyone’s futures!”

She flies at him, blades extended outward directly ahead, aiming to spear him on them. He blocks just in time, and grunts from the exertion. “This...battle...is...mine, Meyneth!” he forces out, despite exerting himself to repel the force of her attack.

Fiora takes over, cries, “Try and catch me!” and is surrounded with blue light. Zipping around to Zanza’s back, Meyneth activates an ether field that takes some of his power for her own, before unleashing a blur of slashes with her swords.

The power of these strikes brings Zanza to heel, and he falls to the ground, resting on one knee. Likely with muscle (or perhaps, gear) memory, she delivers a roundhouse kick, before a somersault kick, disorienting him.

“Hmph. Is that all you’ve got?” He’s trying to rile her up, but his pathetic attempts are failing miserably. She says nothing as she delivers sword strike after sword strike at lightning speed, marring Zanza’s once clear face with cut after cut.

Eventually, he gets up, but not before Meyneth kicks him in the chin, making him cry in pain, his normally impassive façade finally broken. Even a god’s body has limits.  
“Shifting into Second Gear!” Fiora stabs Zanza with the swords, and then slashes outward, nearly pushing him to the edge of the platform. “Yeah, go, Fiora! Show him who’s boss!” Reyn calls to her.

Zanza scoffs at Reyn, and tells her, “You are a pathetic excuse for a god!” and uses a Monado Art that leaves fear running down his spine, the aptly named Monado Fear. She seems unaffected, however.

Crossing the twin swords, Meyneth responds not with words, but with Final Cross. The wave of energy emerges from them as Zanza is about to slash her across the face to repay her for doing it to him.

He is pushed back again, this time falling to his knees, and Meyneth uses the same roundhouse kick Art to disorient and daze him, slashing him across the face and body, leaving cuts in his clothing, and him completely confused and unable to respond. For a moment, hope emerges that perhaps she can defeat him and seal him away once more.

That hope is dashed as soon as Zanza gets back up, a murderous rage smoldering in his eyes. He’s out for blood now.

He flies right at her, Monado extended in the same way she extended it when she attacked him. She pushes it away, and he flies to the other side of the walkway, circling around Yaldabaoth. While she flies at him, he takes the time to use Monado Shield, and when she tries to slash him across the face, it bounces harmlessly off the shield.

They fly out of the damaged core, swords constantly clashing. The shield dissipates after a few more seconds, and Meyneth flies back, Zanza in pursuit of her. That’s just what she wants, because Fiora’s drones separate into swords. They slash at him more, further harming him. The rage in his eyes is palpable by now.

“NO HOLDING BACK! MONADO BUSTER!” The Monado’s blade extends in a technique often used by Shulk, and he swings it at a forty-five degree angle, able to hit multiple targets if it wasn’t just Fiora on the battlefield.

She somehow dodges, and gets him into a blade lock like what she did at the beginning.

“Egil, get out of the Mechon! There is no time to explain!”

“What? Lady Meyneth!”

Zanza repels her, and she flies off to the left, him striking again and again, her beginning to falter. Confused, Egil begins to extricate himself from the Mechon.

“Something wrong? Is this the height of your skill? You call yourself a god? And you talk of sharing this world with me?”

He slams her against the side of the Mechonis, his face contorted in an insane grin as he realizes something.

“So, that’s why. The dead boy is important to you. The Homs are nothing but bacteria, clinging to my body!"

“They are living beings! If you cannot understand this, you have no right to call yourself a god!”

Zanza scoffs. “And who decides that? A god. Because only a god may decide. This world only needs one god, Meyneth. May you rot in that shell for all eternity!”

He sends a blast of ether towards Shulk’s body, which causes her to escape from his blade lock so she can protect it. She reaches it in time, shielding it with her power.  
He begins to absorb a great and terrible power, blocking out all light. “Face me like a god! If not, then say goodbye to your PUTRID FRIENDS!”

He shoots a huge X-shaped beam of pure white ether directly at her. It slices through part of Yaldabaoth that he would have been sitting in. In an instant, Meyneth cries, “ZANZAAAAAAAA!” and separates from Fiora, intercepting the beam mere feet away from where they stand.

Zanza seems pleased, but he still says, “Such a fool.” in an ingenuine display of sentiment.

Her final words echo across the entire world. “This is...what I wish. This world...belongs to you all. Create a world...with no need for gods. Egil...you must become...my...champion. Take my Monado...use it...against...him...”

She dissipates into the ether, leaving behind her swords, which are apparently a Monado. Fiora desperately cries out her name.

“I don’t think so,” comes Zanza’s voice, and the swords hover there for a moment. Without thought, Egil rushes forward, and as the swords shoot upwards towards him, he jumps, wrapping his hands around their hilts.

“Try as you might to resist, Machina scum, but the fact remains that these are MINE!”

Egil laughs in response. He has one final trick up his sleeve. All Machina are made from metal and have many special components, so their weight can often exceed a ton. To compensate for this, they all have anti-gravity devices that decrease their effective weight to that of a Homs or High Entia. These can be de-activated at will.

He de-activates his, and both him and the swords go plummeting to the ground, making a loud crash and a dent in the floor, but the swords are safely out of his reach.  
Re-activating the device, he looks up at Zanza, only to see his face contorted into a mask of rage, sputtering out incoherent words.

“I...you...you...we...you insolent little...THIS ISN’T OVER!”

He warps away, leaving them to escape. “Surely, he is planning something,” Egil tells them. “He must have weighed allowing us to escape over killing us now and thinks he has something to gain from allowing us to remain alive.”

“Eugh. He gives me the creeps. No one should have that much power.” Reyn’s stomach rumbles, and Riki gleefully shouts, “Maybe Reyn stomach give creepy feeling, not evilpon Zanza!”

“SHUT IT, FURBALL!”

Riki starts snickering to himself, confident in his ability to rile Reyn up.

The swords fuse into a greatsword, which is something that Egil is much more familiar using.

A green cloud of ether billows out from Eryth Sea, Dunban being the first to notice. “What is the meaning of this?”

“What do you mean, Dunban?” Melia asks.

“Look at Eryth Sea. Why is that light there? What is he doing?”

Egil decides not to tell her what’s happening. She deserves to be in the dark for as long as possible.

An explosion rocks Mechonis at this moment, reminding everyone that they need to escape. Sharla feels Shulk’s chest for a heartbeat, and it surprises everyone when she announces, “He’s still alive! I don’t know how, but he is. That wound would have killed anyone else!”

“Perhaps it was Meyneth’s final gift?” Fiora suggests. “As good a theory as any,” Melia adds.

Dunban makes sure that the transporter is still active. “Good, it still works. Let’s go, everyone! We must return to Junks, or all is lost.”

Everyone else but him and Egil file through the transporter. Before Egil can go through, he feels Dunban’s hand on his arm, gripping it tightly, not enough to cause any harm, but still conveying a threatening message.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did, Egil. Just because you’re on the same side as us does not mean we’ve forgiven you.”

“...Dunban, I know that words cannot undo all the suffering and damage I’ve caused. After this is all over, I will spend time atoning for what I have done, and I will likely not stop within your lifetime, or even in Melia’s lifetime. I owe them that, at least.”

“See to it that you do, Egil. I’m choosing to trust you for now. I hope you won’t break my trust.”

He lets go of Egil’s arm, and follows him through the transporter.

The destroyed Apocrypha greets them, and Egil takes the chance to extract several vials of red Mechonis ether from it, knowing that it will most likely be destroyed with the Mechonis otherwise. He has a strange feeling that it will prove useful one day soon.

They are running across the bridge and up the girder, when another explosion rocks the Mechonis, causing the vials of ether to slip from Egil’s hand, falling down the Mechonis. If they land in the water, they might be unscathed, but it would be hard to retrieve them.

It doesn’t matter, Egil tells himself. What use is there in holding on to sentimentality of their home? That sort of behavior could only breed resentment.

Reaching Junks, they head through the doors. As soon as Miqol sees Egil, his face contorts in shock, but also an unmistakable hope.

“It is true, Father. They were able to convince me that I was wrong. I must tell you what transpired in the Core, but first, we must leave.”

Junks takes off, flying through the heat duct, and Egil begins to explain. “Zanza has returned. He was residing in Shulk’s body, acting as his life force. He took the Monado from Shulk and left him hanging onto life by a thread.”

“It was only thanks to Lady Meyneth’s actions that we survived, at the cost of her life. Zanza tried to take her Monado, but I was able to retrieve it. Nay, she told me to take it up and use it in the coming battles. Now, if you will excuse me, father. I must prepare to defend Junks from the Bionis.” He leaves and walks into the hallway, oblivious to Miqol’s shock at this revelation.

If Junks is to reach its target destination safely, then it needs to be protected by the Mechonis. Egil reaches out to Yaldabaoth by remote, and finds that he can still transmit his voice through Mechonis.

This is an unexpected boon. He might be able to fool Zanza into believing that he is sacrificing himself, which could buy them some much-needed time as Zanza tries to look for Meyneth’s Monado in the wreckage of Mechonis.

He projects his voice through the Mechonis. “We shall defy you to the last, Zanza. Our battle will be one to decide the fate of this world!”

Junks finally clears Mechonis, and Zanza’s voice booms across the entire world. “Decide the fate of this world? Ha! You stubborn mortals are so desperate to cling to your pathetic lives, that you delude yourself into believing that you can fight the passage of fate.”

The Bionis readies the sword of light, preparing to destroy Junks. “Allow me to make things perfectly clear. There is no hope for you!” He swings it downwards, only for Egil to move the Mechonis’ arm in a motion to block it long enough for Junks to fly out of reach. The arm falls into the ocean again.

“Don’t you ever give up?”

“Never. But hear this, Zanza. They may judge my actions against the life of Bionis, but never my actions against YOU!”

Curling the Mechonis’ hand into a fist, he drives it forward into the Bionis’ chest, puncturing a great hole in it. Unfazed, the Bionis breaks the arm off with a motion of its own arm.

“DIE!”

Zanza brings the sword of light down to destroy Mechonis once and for all. He truly believes Egil is inside. His connection to Yaldabaoth severs as it is destroyed by the heat of the sword.

He feels numb with disbelief as his home begins to emit blue light. It falls to its knees, head raised to the stars, before the light overtakes it, brightening to the point that the titan cannot be seen at all, before a wave of it passes across the heavens.

The Mechonis is no more.


End file.
